Former rugby star Sam Stanley is opening up about his relationship with Laurence Hicks, a travel agent Stanley met on the website SilverDaddies.com.

Sam Stanley wrote on Instagram:

After being a part of each others lives for almost 7 years, @lorenzo_uk has been my pretend godfather, uncle, cousin and many others in order to make sure no one found out about us and that we were a couple ? funny looking back after having come so far together. The most loving man I know and I’m incredibly happy to say we’re now engaged ?

We applaud Stanley for being open and honest regarding his relationship with Hicks.

“For me, I fell in love with Laurence very quickly,” Stanley tells Attitude. “I’d never had the feelings I felt for him before. It was pretty amazing and I’m incredibly lucky to have met him and call him my fiancé.”

Stanley continues, “We first met online on a site called SilverDaddies.com. I mean I was never going to be seen out on the scene as I was so far in the closet at the time.”

A post shared by S a m S t a n l e y (@samstannerz) on May 1, 2017 at 3:32am PDT

SilverDaddies.com describes itself as “a meeting place for mature men and other men (both daddies and younger), who are interested in keeping their daddy happy and/or sexually satisfied. The site offers the possibility of having a personal ad and also features galleries (changed daily) and a chat – and it’s free!”

While many people have been supportive of their relationship, there have been some haters. Regardless, Stanley says he’s proud to be outspoken about a relationship like theirs. “I’m sure as everyone knows, you’re not doing anything right if you’re not getting criticized in this world,” Stanley says. “Laurence and I love each other and to us that’s all that matters. We’re proud to represent the many relationships like ours.”

“The main thing for me was realizing I wasn’t changing and this is who I am. I tried hard at pretending to be straight mainly to fit in and not be different. But then being different is great! Really it just happened because I stopped thinking to myself about when the right time was etc worrying about everyone else except myself.”